Dear Comrades! We are in complete agreement with you that the unification of all genuine social-democratic internationalists is one of the most urgent tasks at the present moment... Before giving a reply to your practical proposal, we consider it necessary to clarify frankly certain preliminary questions, so as to know whether there exists between us genuine solidarity on fundamentals. You are entirely justified in your indignation at the fact that Alexinsky, Plekhanov and others come forward in the foreign press, presenting their voice as the "voice of the Russian proletariat or its influential groups." This must be combated. But in order to combat it, one must get to the root of the evil. There is no doubt whatsoever that there has been and is no greater corruption than the so-called system of representation of the notorious foreign "currents." And here we can scarcely reproach the foreigners. Let us recall the recent past. Was it not the case at that very Brussels Conference (3 July 1914)

* This refers to No. 40 of the newspaper *Sotsial-Demokrat*, which appeared on 29 March 1915. —Ed.